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Tsokolate Tablea Ice Cream

You know, I am not an expert when it comes to the specifics of tablea, so I leave the answers to the experts 🙂

What is Philippine tablea?

The Philippine tablea is defined as roasted, ground and molded nibs of fermented pure (100%) cacao beans without added ingredients and additives. It is also a cocoa mass and cocoa liquor made from cacao beans that are fermented, dried, roasted, ground then molded into blocks, balls, discs, or tablets.

It is traditionally used in the Philippines to make a hot chocolate beverage using a wooden mixing implement or stirrer. The Cacao Industry Development Association of Mindanao estimated that around 2,000 tons of cacao beans is processed to tablea. – Industry.Gov.Ph

Oh, by the way, this is an egg-free version 🙂

What sets this apart from the other chocolates?

It’s the fat content that makes the difference. When cacao is processed into cocoa powder, most of the cocoa butter is lost. What cocoa powder has lost is retained in the tablea. The term tablea itself appears to have been brought over by the Spaniards, probably a diminituve of tabla or “plank” — small plank, in other words, which illustrates something solid in contradisctinction with cocoa powder. – Casa Veneracion

*****

Thick, frothy, with the bittersweet taste of dark chocolate and the slight graininess that sets it apart from other versions, Tsokolate, or Filipino Hot Chocolate, is one of my very favorite treats back home. Made with tablea (chocolate tablets), and tempered with milk and sugar, it is simple and luxurious at the same time. Whisked manually with a batidor (or molinillo, a wooden hot chocolate stirrer), it is a labor of love. – Confessions of A Chocoholic

And thanks to my bestie for bringing me 100 pcs. freshly made tablea straight from their province, Dumaguete few months ago 🙂

So, let’s start.

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup ground tablea (see notes below)

1/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (or milk chocolate chips)

1 and 3/4 cup water

400ml evaporated milk

395g condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

375ml thick cream (or whipping cream)

1/2 cup brown sugar (depending on preference, white is ok)

PROCEDURE

Prepare the ice cream bowl / machine per manufacturer’s manual.

In a saucepan, combine tablea and water. Turn on heat to low. Constantly stir the mixture until the liquid has reduced into almost half. More or less 15 to 20 minutes.

Add the chocolate chips and stir until it melts and blend with the tablea completely. Turn off heat and cool completely. The tablea mixture will thicken in a paste like consistency as it cool.

In a mixing bowl, combine the tablea paste with the rest of the ingredients except the sugar.Whisk on medium low until well combined. Taste, add sugar as needed, 1/2 cup is enough for me, you may add more as you like, mix until the sugar has melted.

Transfer the ice cream mixture in a clean bowl. Refrigerate for at least overnight, at this stage, you will notice (using thick cream) the mixture is a bit thin, but as it rest in the fridge overnight, the mixture will thicken.

Give the mixture a good stir before transferring to the ice cream machine and churn until fully set.

NOTES

To make ground tablea, coarsely chop the tablea then put it in the coffee grinder and grind until fine in texture. Measure the amount needed. For an intense flavor, you may add 1/4 cup dutch processed cocoa powder instead of chocolate chips. You can also add 1/4 cup more tablea as you like.

If in case the cream you have comes only in 250ml or 200ml packs respectively, you may use 400ml or 500ml of cream without adjusting the rest of the ingredients. This will just result to creamier ice cream.

Whisking or stirring the tablea until it thickens releases its flavor, the longer you slow cook and whisk, the more flavorful it will become.

I haven’t tried making this using no machine method though, but here’s a tip, make sure you use whipping cream and make sure that the rest of the ingredients are cold including the tablea paste and whisk until its thick before freezing.